Schuey insists Ferrari is still the fastest

Speaking after Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix, Schumacher says circumstances worked against Ferrari, which cost them the chance of victory in both Melbourne and Sepang.

"I think I can rightly say we had the quickest car in Melbourne and in Sepang - Rubens and I set the quickest lap times," said Schumacher. "It would be wrong to draw conclusions from just one event which did not go in our favour. It would also be a mistake to say, as some did before Sepang, that there is a crisis at Ferrari. There were special circumstances in both races to which can be added errors on my part.

"It's just that the fight is much closer now than last year, as we had predicted before the start of the season. There will be races where the competition has an advantage and others where we will have the upper hand. It would be too much to expect that a season like ours in 2002 could be repeated and we never felt it could."

Schumacher reiterated that there was no reason to rush the new F2003-GA chassis into service too soon.

"Obviously, the two accidents suffered by Luca Badoer have not helped the development programme, but I do not feel the situation can be described as a crisis," said Schumacher. "In my opinion, it would be stupid to adopt a course of action which could prove to be the wrong one in the long term. Our old car is still quick enough, even if it did not show all its potential in Australia and Malaysia, partly because of the circumstances and partly because of our mistakes."